The Bigbee Line

I found a couple of part built kits. So place marked them on the baseboard.

This is my crude effort.

Friday Night is Railway Night I took my 4 corridor coaches to a friends layout to give them a run. Turned on the lights and assembled them in the track. A Heljan 31 to start, then a Black Five. Everybody was impressed. I looked at the height against the 31 and have to lay on the track to spot the extra height.

Here are a couple of shots from the Worthing Show. My second opportunity to operate this inspirational layout. Here the Yard Pilot is shunting, lovely loco to use. A bit big for the need. But very nice. Then the Hudswel Clarke Estate loco. A busy scene. Big thanks to Chaz. Plus his team.

What is the BGS Society, excuse my ignorance..

Just back from a great day at Telford. Look what’s getting shunted into Brighton Works.... Well done to all the team.

Today at Telford I am looking for brick paper or styrene, manhole covers, drains and other detail parts.

Staying near Telford ready for Guildex. Need to have great will power. My list for wagons is only buffers and etched brakework. Maybe grey paint and decals.

Great news. Looking forward to seeing them.

50 shades of grey. I had had picked up a couple of Games Workshops shades of Grey. I had given each a stir with a wooden coffee stirrer. When they had dried out, the shade reference was written in each stick. I’ve had a test run with Ulthuan Grey. It was applied as a thinned coat over some Tamiya, slightly darker grey. I applied some black Micro-Scale decal sheet. Then found the nearest number decals from the same manufacturer.

Brighton Works is being readied for more added detail. There are extra shelves added to assist with the perpetual sorting of parts. Here a weathered 32635 shunts.

Some measurements and pictures would be much appreciated.

I removed the metal parts of the buffers to fix the ‘rings’ on the front. Promptly decanted the tray of bits in the floor..... So it will be Man V Carpet Monster later....

Good afternoon, Sorry to kick this thread back into life. I'm looking to do these in 7mm. This is a clip from an excellent Ian D Nolan flickr picture https://www.flickr.com/photos/31890193@N08/albums/72157635474809301/with/14094018672/ Has anyone any information? Thanks Ernie

Tonight’s work bench, tools and material. Various bits of plastic lid..... Maybe a lot of effort for a little plastic.

Interlude. I have wagons that that just require minor tweaks. One of which is an LMS van that looks like a D1664. I have added rain strips. Then noticed that the uprights of the metal framing bent under the sides, but the model continued straight down. So they were cut off and the scrap trimmed to form the portion under the sides. They need some filling and filing....

The walls have a capping on the top. I’ve roughed one out of a few layers of card as a trial. I think I will treat with a couple of layers of shellac, then give it a sand. The brick pillars need to be built next. I need a visual feature next to the stops. Here is my inspiration.

Forgot, I’d found some C & L fishplates.

A nice tea it was to. The ballast was sorted and some glue added.

I put my chosen wheelsets (with thinner than usual journals) into a battery drill and gave them a Polish. Also de-rusting the rims and axle. Having a brainwave I took some of the kit-kat foil and placed two small circles on a cut section of tube and smoothed the outside around the tube. That thickness when pushed into the axleguards was “just right”. The wheels turn but have the right amount of resistance. Starting to look the part now.

Thanks, i have a puffer pack purchased years years ago for Yale locks.

Busy in the garden today. But found some stops. The P Way had to dig out some ballast and hotch a sleeper along a bit. But the stops are in. They are a Peco set with the back legs removed. It maximises the shunt neck. After tea I will move the sleeper along and ballast. When it’s all dry I will up end the board and “red and white” the beam.

I’ve created a ledge for the solebar support to slide under. With other parts of interlocking styrene, the solebar will slide in from the outside. Hopefully just requiring a single discrete pin to keep it in position.

Here is a table of AWG showing wire diameters. The Bootlace ferrules are available in 'even' AWG sizes.... They are plated copper, so we will see how they wear. I've no mileage turns, so should be OK as a stop gap, plus they will be greased before operation (To lubricate and prevent any tendency for the bearing journal to rust).

I finally found something to make some wheel bearings. I'm sure I have lots of pieces of small tube, these are hiding somewhere... These are what I can find, some bootlace ferrules. A short piece is cut off for the bearing and it slips over the axle end quite nicely. There is scope to vary the position in the axle guards. I will 'blank off' the inner end with a wrap of thin foil from a Kit-kat wrapper, then when ready to 'set up' put a small blob of solvent/plasticard mix into the hole on each axleguard and push the bearings in with the axles, the quickly assemble the solebars to the wagon, adjust the axle to be level and at the right height (In this case I want it at the bottom of the hole to lift buffer height slightly), then leave for at least 24 hours. Providing it is OK, an voids between the bearing and axleguard can be filled.